It’s an old and venerable tradition of rugby league in Northern Queensland and now the Foley Shield is back.
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After sitting in hibernation for the past five years; the pinnacle of rugby league in North Queensland will once again be contested in 2017.
The most venerable inter-district tournament in the north has been dusted off and will be incorporated into the InTrust Super Cup ties between northern clubs.
Intrust Super Cup teams Townsville Blackhawks, Northern Pride and Mackay Cutters will battle for the shield in their games.
QRL Northern Division manager Scott Nosworthy (whose father played in the Foley Shield) made the announcement.
“Our board has made a decision, after talking to the three Intrust Super Cup clubs in North Queensland, that we will reinvigorate the Foley Shield, which will be contested between the Townsville Mendi Blackhawks, Mackay Cutters and the Northern Pride in 2017,” Nosworthy said.
Mount Isa Foley Shield football legend Vern Daisy hopes the North West will also eventually rejoin the concept.
“The Foley Shield was a big gathering spot for the whole of north Queensland, it was a big talking point in who was going to win it,” Daisy told media at the re-launch of the Foley Shield in Townsville.
“I remember the Foley Shield being a big gathering point for the whole of North Queensland, the crowds were huge back then. When you put on a Mount Isa jersey it meant a hell of a lot.”
The crowds were huge back then - When you put on a Mount Isa jersey it meant a hell of a lot.
- Vern Daisy
Blackhawks chairman Gavin Lyons believed the revival of the Foley Shield would also increase numbers of rugby leagues players in North Queensland.
“Representative football starts from as young as Under 10s,” he said.
“They get used to playing against each other, that’s how some of that history comes to the fore in a Foley Shield grand final.”
The first game of the Foley Shield will be in Round 1 when the Mackay Cutters take on the Northern Pride in Mackay.
Before the Second World War an inter-town competition known as the Carlton Cup was contested in North Queensland. This was revamped in 1948, and renamed in honour of Arch Foley, a member of the 1918 Townsville representative team that travelled north to Cairns, and south throughout Central Queensland.
He was a founding member of the Townsville Souths rugby league club, and with later Australian Prime Minister Arthur Fadden formed the North Queensland Rugby League in 1919.
Mount Isa wasn’t one of the original members but it didn’t take long for the North West to get the hang of it.
Mount Isa (sometimes Mount Isa/Mid West or Northern Outback) won eight titles with the 1970s and early 1980s its heyday.
Mount Isa’s eight titles came in 1969, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1988. Those titles put Mount Isa third in overall standings behind Cairns (14) and Townsville (12).
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
